Update
There have been a number of calls for the pub to be rebuilt as was. There is precedence for this but it would clearly be costly. The present owners of the site might be required to do so by legal action. However even if the action was successful there is no real guarantee they’d do it and even less of one that it’d reopen as a pub. Perhaps Marstons who set the whole sorry chain of events off should be prevailed upon to face the consequences of their actions and then act on them
The Crooked House Pub near Dudley has been in the news,not least because while it is an historic building and thought to be the wonkiest pub in Britain it currently does not exist.
It was sold by Marstons to private buyers in July with a clear view of it not continuing as a pub. Subsquently it caught fire and was subsequently bulldozed.
The police are investigating the fire as arson and the the knocking down of the pub is under investigation by Staffordshire Council for breach of planning permissions and laws.
The issue has raised a focus on pubs that have disappeared in similar circumstances and the Campaign for Real Ale and others have made public statements.
The focus on Marstons though has been developed. Since they entered into a partnership with global brewer Carlsberg they are essentially a pub company and one with links to the Tory Party. The link is known historically as the Beerage. In the last 10 years both Dave Cameron and Rishi Sunak have made PR visits to Marstons.
The question must be asked why Marstons decided to get rid of the Crooked House pub. Perhaps after the pandemic it wasnt profitable but that should not have stopped them from selling it to someone who wanted to run it, perhaps for example the local community or a local business.
What has happened to the Crooked House is vandalism but its also the politics of pre-1832 Old Corruption where decisions were made that benefited the few rather than the many with no real framework of democratic accountability
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